


A Drought of Light Bulbs

by stardustgirl



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: (it's a very fine line sometimes), Alternate Universe - Danny Phantom (TV) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Light Angst, Murder, Murder Mystery, Near Death Experiences, Not Really Character Death, Past Character Death, SO, Step-Brothers, Teenagers, Tragedy/Comedy, also yeah sabine and ezra are the same age in this one, but with ghosts !!, it's your basic murder mystery solved by a couple of high schoolers and their teachers, they're like a couple months apart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-23 23:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: Ezra’s mom died when he was three.  A ghost killed her.  And Ezra watched it happen.The thing is, lately, Ezra feels more like he needs to look into the incident himself.  Maybe it’s the growing stress of freshman year, maybe it’s his best friend Sabine’s current obsession with mystery novels, maybe it’s that ghosts have been showing up with more and more frequency.Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s literally half-dead himself.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Darth Maul, Ezra Bridger & Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger & Sabine Wren, Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Kudos: 12





	A Drought of Light Bulbs

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "The Judge" by Twenty-One Pilots.
> 
> Specific warnings vary by chapter, but a general warning for blunt discussion of parent death, child abuse/neglect, emotional manipulation, and blood. None of these are present in the first chapter.
> 
> Also a HUGE thank you goes out to LibraryMage for helping me with the plot for this and helping it go from a vague "I want to write/read an AU of ___" to "here is the AU of ___".

Ezra was sitting in class when his Ghost Sense went off.

He was trying to stay awake in his seat, ending up eyeing Sabine in hopes of talking to stay awake. She was paying attention without a problem, of course—it was _ Sabine _ and _ biology, _ how could she not?—so he shifted his gaze to the teacher instead. He wasn’t paying attention to Ezra, either, instead drawing out the parts of a cell on the whiteboard with his back to the class. Ezra groaned internally.

“Now, who can tell me what the powerhouse of the ce—“

Dume happened to cut himself off at the same time a small cloud of vapor escaped from Ezra’s mouth. The teacher lowered his marker to the chalk tray, seeming to steady himself for a moment. A quick glance at Sabine just confirmed what he’d already suspected; she was more frustrated at the fact that Dume hadn’t turned to call on her yet than anything else.

More importantly, however, she hadn’t seen the cloud.

Dume finally turned around, face frozen in a half-smile. “Alright class, where was I—“

His phone buzzed and he grabbed it from his desk, checking it quickly before shoving it in a pocket. “Family emergency, I gotta go. I’ll call a TA in,” he said swiftly. Ezra could barely tell _ what _ he was saying as he set the marker down and pointed to Sabine. “Sabine, you’re in charge until then.”

“Wait, Mr. Dume—“

“They should be here in a minute,” he finished, shutting the door with enough force that Ezra jumped.

He counted to ten before turning to Sabine. “I gotta go to the bathroom.”

He bolted off the lab stool, slinging his backpack over one arm and nearly ripping his phone from Sabine’s charger as he ran for the door and slipped out. He ignored Sabine’s frustrated yell of “Ezra—!” and hurried down the hall, slipping into the first bathroom he came to. He dropped the bag, shoving his phone in his pocket before changing into ghost form. He couldn’t help closing his eyes in an effort to shield them from the bright arcs forming around his body as he changed before turning the backpack and himself invisible. Finally, he was off.

He made it to his locker and shoved everything in, turning away and trying to sense for the disturbance again. This ghost wouldn’t be the first he’d beat.

Just the second.

He flew up and out of the school, turning himself invisible and allowing instinct to take over as he phased through every classroom and up onto the roof. He turned tangible and lit down on it, scanning the area around the school. Normally, if all played to history, the ghost would be indoors, but he had a hunch this time.

And his hunch was right. A glowing figure was methodically going through the trash cans by the student parking, grumbling loudly to itself. Not dangerous yet, but something it threw out could puncture a tire. And _ that _ could be dangerous.

Ezra hopped off the roof, grinning to himself at the feeling of freefalling for a few seconds before launching himself into flight and swooping along the ground. He stopped right behind the ghost, hovering. “Hey.”

The figure turned, and Ezra realized with a jolt that he was a lot taller than Ezra’d thought. Heavily built, too, with ectoplasm tinged a sickly gray. Ezra repressed a shudder.

“Why do you interfere, human?”

“I’m not human, though, am I?” he challenged, pointing to the fact he was levitating six inches off of the ground. The hulking figure had the good sense to seem somewhat impressed.

That thought dissipated in Ezra’s mind upon the humanoid’s next words. “Ghost, then. Either way, get out of this area. It’s _ mine _ for now, until I find what I’m looking for.”

“And what is that?” He was curious now.

Too curious.

“You wouldn’t have happened to see any...eyes, would you have?”

Ezra shook his head wordlessly. The ghost’s odd request wasn’t unsurprising; they tended to fixate on things like that for some reason. The humanoid sighed, adjusting the odd little hat that rested, oddly straight, on his head. He turned back to the trash can, continuing to toss things out of it. “You could always try the optometrist.”

The ghost whirled, brandishing a blazing sword of green fire at Ezra. He backpedaled, swallowing hard. “You _ dare _ suggest I go to a _ human _ for assistance?” roared the ghost.

“Sorry?” he tried, offering an awkward half-grin.

He didn’t have time to register the weapon coming toward him until it hit with a resounding _ crack, _ knocking him against one of the cement supports for the roof overhang. He groaned, getting up with a wince and making a mental note to phase _ through _ anything hard next time.

Blinking, he saw the ghost approaching, a low growl on his lips. Now that Ezra had the chance to, he took a closer look. The ghost _ did _ appear to be missing his eyes, or at the least to be blind, which would support his...search.

Ezra struggled to his feet, placing a hand against the support in an effort to stabilize himself before falling through it with a yelp. He’d phased through, he realized with a groan, picking himself up off of the concrete he _ hadn’t _ fallen through.

He shook his head to clear it, swallowing and feeling for his ectogun. He’d expressed an interest in ghost hunting to Arihnda after the first attack, and she had, surprisingly, been happy to help. Though, looking back, that might have also been mostly because of the fact that she wouldn’t be at all disappointed if he died while not on her watch.

However, the object of his search was nowhere to be found.

He cursed, sharply, and whirled as he began to pat at his pockets and waistband. He had been _ sure _ to pack it, had even practiced _ drawing it _ until he had the movement down to a _ science _ because, of course, you could never be too sure when it came to ghosts—

Oh.

That was it.

He’d left it.

He’d kriffing _ left it, _ and in his _ backpack, _ too.

Today was going _ great. _

He turned back to the ghost empty-handed, swallowing down the cold fear bubbling up in his throat. “Look, hey, maybe we can work something out—“

“Leave him alone!”

The ghost turned to see someone above, _ another ghost, _ making their way over. They landed on the pavement about ten yards back, but with the angry, blind ghost ahead of him, Ezra couldn’t see.

Wait.

See. Blind. The ghost was _ blind. _

Carefully, Ezra began to edge out and away. The ghost was now wholly focused on the newcomer, allowing Ezra to move around to the side and assess the situation.

The newcomer, as he’d guessed, was a ghost. Great. Now there were _ two _ of them he was going to have to handle without a weapon.

As he tried to come up with a plan of attack, he allowed the ghosts’ discussion to filter into his mind. However, now that he was listening, it sounded more like _ banter _ in all honesty.

“—ssing a _ kid _ for?! What would _ Zeb _ do if he knew—“

“Humans aren’t in charge, halfa. As you should know.”

The new ghost’s aura flared brightly for a second though it remained on the ground. He nodded, otherwise unmoving.

“I just thought you still wanted help with your eyes. Zeb won’t help you if—“

“_Zeb _ is—“

“Here we go again,” Ezra heard the newcomer mutter faintly. This ghost at least looked _ mostly _ human, more like himself than the blind one. He wasn’t human, though; the aura pulsing around him made that clear.

However, ghosts didn’t carry weapons made by his father in one hand.

He should’ve just gotten away and grabbed his bag while he had the chance, he _ knew _ that, but there he stood, trying to come up a reason as to why a ghost would have weapons made specifically to entrap and kill _ other _ ghosts. It wasn’t as if Pryce Works didn’t strongly support the eradication of ghosts—the exact opposite, in fact—but it wasn’t like his father to hand his weapons over to ghosts, either. Neither was it like Arihnda, for that matter.

Just as he was beginning to come up with an explanation as to why Father had let ectoplasmic entities steal equipment, the more human-like ghost called out to him.

“Hey, kid! Catch!”

He threw a gun at Ezra.


End file.
